AMD appoints John Byrne sales king of America

The rise and rise of AMD's most successful Scotsman continues unabated. John Byrne will be promoted to the post of Corporate Vice President and General Manager for the Americas Mega Region on Monday, we can reveal.

Byrne joined ATI when the graphics chip maker bought out UK graphics card seller Advance 3D and subsequently rose to the fore when the Canadian outfit was swallowed by AMD in 2006. Byrne came to run AMD's Worldwide Channel, Regional OEM, SMB and Taiwan Partner Sales, just over two years ago.

After what an AMD source describes as "a lot of success" in that role, Byrne now shifts his penetrating gaze and undoubted motivational talent to driving relationships and business with major multinational companies. A "tick box" we're told he "needs to check off to go even further."

We suggested Byrne could sell sand to Libya, but it helps to have decent product to flog and, with Brazos reportedly "flying off the shelves" and with the GFX line up and with LLano on the way AMD feels its in "pretty good shape" our source said.

Ron Martin, who worked with Byrne at Advance 3D before coming a spinner for AMD and subsequently with the PRZone had this to say today: "Having worked with John Byrne for about ten years, I can honestly say that he is the best boss I ever worked for. He listens (even when you think that he is not) and acts decisively (even if its not what you expect him to do)!

"Also, with a business tag line of "make money and have fun", you simply can't go wrong as an employee, just so long as you pull your weight."

Our own first contact with Byrne came when he sent though a funky new graphics card in the post, having read a column I'd written in a former life that referenced the three-year old technology I was using back then to play try to play Doom 2 on.

The next was when I woke up throbbing and bewildered in some hotel room in West London with a snoring Ron in the next bed and a fuzzy recollection of having tried to out-booze Byrne's boys.